YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WYTV) – Ohio is one of five states to show an increase in its obesity rate, according to government data released this week.

Nearly one of three adults in Ohio is obese, per a telephone survey from the Centers for Disease Control. The state’s obesity rate increased to 32.6 percent in 2014 from 30.4 percent in 2013. Only two states – Minnesota and New Mexico – showed larger increases than Ohio in obesity rates.

“Obesity remains one of the biggest threats to the health of our children and our country,” said Dr. Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health. “If we fail to change the course of the nation’s obesity epidemic, the current generation of young people may be the first in American history to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents.”

One of the local groups trying to combat childhood obesity is the Mahoning Valley Healthy Kids Coalition, a coalition that includes the Youngstown Central YMCA, Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley, and schools in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.